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132 First Steps to Jainism
First trial
Second trial
Third trial
Fourth trial
(1)
(1)
(1)
(2
(2)
-
(2)
After the third trial no new possibilities arise.
Diagram showing the possible sequences of predications.
It is clear that the seven possibilities are exhaustive. My only possible criticism of Bhadrabahu is this. If the subject has given two different answers he may be aware that there is a possibility that he will later give the third. Once he has given all three, no further possibility is open. It might therefore be argued that the seventh of predication should be "asti nästi ca avaktavyásca".
On the hypothesis that the subject is in a steady physiological
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